In a year packed with shooters, there was one game that led the pack for us: Borderlands 2. This isn’t your standard Call of Duty schlock; this is a game that’s bursting at the seams with personality. We love it for its art style, for its characters, and for the amazing way it feels to see a psycho’s head explode in a cloud of blood after a perfectly aimed headshot. Oh yeah, you’re not letting small children play this, are you?

What did fans want most from the next game in the Halo series? How about a game that feels entirely new yet entirely classic at the same time? That’s a tall order, but Halo 4 somehow served it up. Yeah, even after playing through that, we’re not entirely sure how that was even possible.